falling in love (mcfly)

Chapter 9

“Are you really that blind? Tom likes you…a lot.”

I froze.

“No he doesn’t,” I immediately denied. “There’s no way.”

“Oh, really?” Harry raised his eyebrows. “Em, he told us himself.”

I shook my head unconsciously. Harry took a step closer to me.

“Is there any chance that you, maybe, like him back?” he asked in a soft voice.

“I’ve never thought about him like that.” I answered truthfully. I really hadn’t. It felt weird to imagine anything romantic between Tom and me. We had been friends for so long that I couldn’t imagine anything different. Looking back up at Harry, I saw relief quickly flash across his face. He took another step closer.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you, Emma.” Harry said, in a voice barely above a whisper. “Forgive me?”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure which one of us had moved closer this time, but suddenly Harry was right in front of me. His hand reached out towards my face, thumb tracing my jaw line, before gently lifting up my chin with his finger and placing his lips on my own. We pulled apart a few seconds later, glancing around to make sure no one saw us. Thankfully, it was a generally quiet street and there was nobody around.

“We should probably go back inside…”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Harry agreed, giving my hand a final squeeze.

We made our way back to the table, taking our original spots. Danny, Tom, and Dougie were all staring at us.

“What was that all about?” Tom asked. I felt myself blush, remembering that he supposedly had feelings for me.

“Um, we just had a bit of a misunderstanding, but we’re all good now, so…” I trailed off awkwardly, as the guys continued to look at me.

“What about?”

“Nothing really.” I said a little too quickly. Tom’s face fell slightly, realizing that he wasn’t going to get anymore out of me. I actually felt pretty bad; we told each other everything. He ran his hand through his blonde hair, which fell past his ears. He really did need a haircut. Tom looked up and caught me watching him. I glanced down at the empty plate in front of me.

Danny was the first to break the silence by asking me for Kayla’s number.

“Why don’t you just ask her yourself?”

“She left while you and Harry were sorting out your ‘misunderstanding’.”

“Oh, alright. Give me your phone.”

Danny handed me his phone, and I entered Kayla’s information into it. I was still a little weirded out that they knew each other to begin with. After paying the bill, we decided to head back to our houses.

“We parked around the corner, so it’s a little bit of a walk,” Dougie notified me when we left the restaurant.

“That’s okay. Beats taking the bus.”

Harry was in the middle of a conversation with Dougie, so I decided to walk next to Tom. My hand accidently brushed against his, and then, without really realizing it, we were holding hands like we usually did. It was just habit. I thought back to when Harry asked if I was blind for not realizing that Tom liked me. Why hadn’t I noticed before? I loved Tom; I had for a while, but not in the romantic sense of the word. He was my best friend, and I didn’t know him as anything else. Blushing again at the thought of Tom liking me in a different way, I let go of his hand and made an excuse of needing to look for something in my bag.

I stood off to the side, letting Dougie, Tom, and Danny pass me, until Harry and I were walking a few steps behind them.

“How come he gets to hold your hand in public like that and I don’t?” Harry whispered, pouting playfully. But I detected a hint of jealousy in his voice. It was a bit messed up, wasn’t it? We both liked each other, but neither of us was willing to hurt Tom. There was no way I could let myself do that to him. It was for the same reason Tom couldn’t tell me that he liked me. We couldn’t lose each other.

I rode back home with Tom; Dougie and Danny had driven back with Harry. I was silent for most of the ride back.

“You okay?” Tom asked as we pulled into the drive. “You’ve been acting weird.”

“Don’t I always?”

“Fine, weirder than usual,” he chuckled.

“Nope, I’m fine!” I lied. “Just being my normal self…or I guess not-so-normal self.”

“If you say so...”

A/N: I’ve been having a bit of a hard time writing lately because I’m not exactly sure where I want this story to go. There are a whole lot of paths that I could take from here, so it’s hard to pick!